‘Huge demand already’ for Angelus 2014

There is “a huge demand already” for Château Angelus 2014, according to Hubert de Boüard, owner of the St-Emilion property, which was upgraded to Premier Grand Cru Classé ‘A’ status in 2012.

Hubert de Boüard won’t be dropping the price on his 2014 release of Château Angelus

During a tasting of the wine at the château last week, de Boüard told the drinks business that there he had registered an impressive amount of interest for his wine from last year’s harvest, even though it has yet to be priced.

However, de Boüard said that he wouldn’t be using such excitement as a reason to put up prices, and admitted that Bordeaux needed to send a message of “friendship” to its customers.

“Although we know that our customers want to buy, we don’t want to increase the price, because we want to give the consumer a sign of friendship… we want to come back to a good relationship,” he said, referring to Bordeaux’s damaged reputation from the release of lesser recent vintages at high prices.

Nevertheless, he also told db that 2014’s price wouldn’t be falling from last year’s release price for the 2013 vintage of €165 per bottle (ex-negociant) – an 8% decline on 2012, which was up 30% on the previous vintage.

“It is not good to think that the price has to drop, but if it is about the same price [as last year], then with the weaker euro it is a good opportunity to have a wine for a good price,” he said.

As for the quality of the 2014 vintage, de Boüard described it as “not amazing like 2009, but a great vintage”, adding that stylistically this year’s release was between 2001 and 2008, with the “freshness of 2008 and the richness of 2001”.

He also told db that 2014 was a “special vintage” due to the usual weather conditions.

Indeed, he described the vintage as “the Indian wine” due to the Indian summer experience in Bordeaux from 25 August until the end of October, and said that such an unusually warm and dry end to the year had given the wine “a special touch”.

As for the demand for the 2013 release of Angelus, de Boüard said that he had “sold more or less what we wanted to”.